News

Last bastion of the gentlemans fight club

Saturday night may be all right for fighting, but at the St Andrews Sporting Club in Glasgows city centre a proud pugilistic tradition is maintained by Tommy Gilmour Jr, Scotlands godfather of boxing, writes Kenny Farquharson

Something in the heady mix of smells in the room is hard to pin down. Notes of whisky breath and aftershave are easy to identify through the cigar smoke. But what else? Ah yes, the whiff of dinner suits overdue for a visit to the dry cleaners. You cannot smell the blood, at least not from my seat 20 yards from the boxing ring.

There are fresh red smears on the baggy white shorts of Stevie McGuire, a light-heavyweight from Glenrothes. The blood belongs to Shane White, his English opponent, who even at this early stage in the first round looks out of his league. At the bell they retreat to their corners and the only woman in a room of 600 men climbs into the ring.

She is dressed in a tight white T-shirt and hot pants and carries a sign that says Round Two. The eyes of every